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BARRY GOLDWATER: A CHOICE, NOT AN ECHO, PART II

© John S. Cooper

In 1960, conservative Republicans felt they had no real choice. They were not happy with Richard Nixon, who they felt had sold out to the liberal wing of the party. When he picked liberal Henry Cabot Lodge as his running mate, they felt totally betrayed. At the convention, Barry Goldwater addressed them saying, "Let's grow up, conservatives. If we want to take this party back, and I think we can some day, let's go to work."

In spite of Goldwater's disappointment with Nixon's choice of Lodge and the direction the campaign took that fall, Goldwater loyally supported the Republican ticket. The election went by a very narrow margin to the Democrats.

The conservatives began organizing right after the election. Starting in 1961, his followers began attending precinct meetings and building a grass-roots organization. By the time the convention came around in 1964, they had mustered enough votes to guarantee their candidate the nomination on the first ballot. By the time moderates like New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller realized what was happening, it was too late to stop the Goldwater supporters.

Still, at the convention, Governor Rockefeller and Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania mounted an anybody-but-Goldwater campaign. However, Goldwater had the nomination locked up, and his supporters controlled the convention. Even so, the moderates at the convention trashed Goldwater, and provided the Democrats with plenty of ammunition to use against him in the general election campaign.

Goldwater was nominated quickly on the first ballot. Rather than reach out to the moderate wing with his selection of a running mate, he picked a very conservative, very obscure New York Congressman named William Miller, whose views were very close to his own. Goldwater explained his choice saying, "One reason I chose Miller is that he drives Johnson nuts."

In Goldwater's acceptance speech before the convention, he uttered one of the most famous campaign lines ever. He told the convention, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice...moderation in the pursuit of justice no virtue." One reporter hearing the speech cried "My God! He's going to run as Barry Goldwater!" More moderate Republicans were disheartened.

Conservative Republicans had finally won and they campaigned without apology. They claimed that Barry Goldwater offered the voters "a choice, not an echo." Their slogan was "In Your Heart You Know He's Right." Goldwater announced "I find that America is fundamentally a Conservative nation" where "people yearn for a return to Conservative principles." Goldwater's stands against the welfare state, foreign aid, and a conciliatory foreign policy now became Repubican policy.

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